Generated on: June 02, 2025

Public School Data Analysis Report

This report analyzes California public school data to explore relationships between socioeconomic factors, teacher salaries, absence rates, and academic performance. The findings reveal several significant correlations that provide insights for educational policy and resource allocation decisions.

Key Findings

1. Socioeconomic Status Impact

Schools with higher percentages of socioeconomically disadvantaged students show significantly lower test scores in both Math and English Language Arts. The correlation values range from -0.76 to -0.84.

2. Teacher Salary Relationship

Higher teacher salaries show a modest positive correlation with test scores. High-level teacher salaries correlate at approximately 0.18 with test scores, suggesting that competitive compensation may contribute to student achievement.

3. Chronic Absence Impact

Higher chronic absence rates strongly correlate with lower test scores. The correlation values range from -0.39 to -0.48, indicating that regular attendance is an important factor in student achievement.

4. Salary Structure Observations

There's a strong correlation (0.72-0.76) between beginning, mid-career, and high-level teacher salaries, suggesting districts with higher starting salaries tend to maintain competitive compensation throughout career progression.

5. Absence Rate Patterns

Absence rates strongly correlate across different student groups (0.76-0.95), suggesting that absence issues tend to affect entire school populations rather than being isolated to specific demographic groups.

Data Visualizations

Relationship between socioeconomic status and math scores

Figure 1: Relationship between socioeconomic status and math scores showing a strong negative correlation.

Correlation matrix of key variables

Figure 2: Correlation matrix showing relationships between various factors in the dataset.

Variable Reference Guide

This reference table explains the variables used in the analysis.

Identifier Variables
Salary Variables
Test_score Variables
Socioeconomic Variables
Absence Variables
Variable Description
CDSCODE Unique identifier for California schools
DSAL District Salary (Normalized)
STSAL State Salary (Normalized)
BTCHSAL Beginning Teacher Salary (Normalized)
MTCHSAL Mid-career Teacher Salary (Normalized)
HTCHSAL High-level Teacher Salary (Normalized)
SELA_Y2 State English Language Arts Test Score
SMATH_Y2 State Mathematics Test Score
DELA_Y2 District English Language Arts Test Score
DMATH_Y2 District Mathematics Test Score
PERSD Percentage of Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students
RALL Chronic Absence Rate - All Students
REL Chronic Absence Rate - English Learners
RSED Chronic Absence Rate - Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students
Data period: 2022-23